This is prolly stupid to do but I put the starters and their ppg to see how we match up. If nothing else we added PPG with Smith and Jennings. I hope these additions somehow, someway makes Stuckey better. LMMFAO. Ok, moving on. So we've added ppg but have will we improve our defensive ppg allowed or whatever the fuck its called? I don't know with Smith.

The team I'm most looking forward to playing is the Pacers. It'll be fun to see how Drummond can do v Hib and if Smith can guard George.

Pacers

Hill 17
Stephenson 9
George 17
West 14
Hibbert 12

Bulls

Rose
Butler 9
Deng 16
Boozer 16
Noah 12

Bucks

Knight 13
Mayo 15
Delfino 11
Ilyasova 13
Sanders 10

Pistons

Jennings 17.5
Stuckey 11
Smith 17.5
Monroe 16
Drummond 8

Cavs

Irving 22
Waiters 15
Gee 10
Thompson 12
Bynum

The cavs and Bucks lineups still look FUGLY to me.

I don't see how we finished behind the Bucks.

I just looked to see how Smith matched up v George last year but couldn't find.

^ Old Guy

i think it's ridiculous to believe that washington and cleveland will finish ahead of us. insulting even.

i think we will be better than those teams for sure, and possibly better than the knicks also. it will take time for this team to gel a bit but i see us as the #6 seed maybe if all goes well, even the #5. 42-44 wins.

as I revisit this thread, I realize I was speaking on our conference rather than our division as the topic is meant to be on....but my point remains. I see only the pacers and bulls being better than us in our division. and I think, in time, we can even give them some real competition if they take us for granted.

The Detroit Pistons are not built to win games or win the division.
This team as constructed is built to annihilate Miami, Chicago, and match even with Indiana.
The nets offer matchup problems and they are the only east team I view as a truly dangerous to Detroit's lineup.

New York is bucket of soft-serve ice cream, so I don't really count them as a top team.

:we: finish third in the central, and upset the #1 or #2 seed. Then win/lose a close series to Indiana and the Nets.

wow.

It seems like, to this old man who knows not a got damn thing about hoop, that we would prolly do better against teams where their bigs have higher scoring averages. Meaning...Monroe and Dre will hopefully hold them below their averages. Cuz I can't see Stuckey and Jennings holding some of those teams where their guards are the scorers.

Is that even remotely close to anything? Or, it might be true but meaningless?

i'd say it's more than just holding their bigs down; we can potentially keep entire teams out of the paint (or should I say, really minimize their effectiveness there) and pound them on the boards. add smith to that frontline and not only do opponents bigs struggle to score as much, but any wing player or point guard has to think twice about coming into the lane against our frontline. we will block and alter a ton of shots. that can change an entire teams' offensive production and approach. we can force them to become much more perimeter concentrated.

hate this time of year as the NRL season is almost over while the NBA season is so far away but:

Zach Lowe breaks down the Knight/Jennings trade here:

http://www.grantland.com/blog/the-triangle/post/_/id/70126/brandon-for-brandon-what-does-the-jennings-knight-deal-really-mean-for-detroit-and-milwaukee

Bill Simmons (who usually shits on everything we do) gives his opinion on Josh Smith here:

http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/9522281/the-nba-midnight-run-part-2

Since the Simmons article is fucking longer than anything I've ever posted I'll copy and paste the Smith part:



Fact: For the past five years, he's been the best or second-best player for a team that went 228-166 and made the playoffs every year.

Fact: Since 2008, Josh Smith has won more playoff series (three) than Chris Paul (two).

Fact: In the last four seasons, Josh Smith averaged 17.0 PPG, 8.8 RPG, 3.9 assists and 3.2 stocks (steals + blocks) while shooting 47.5 percent and missing just 12 games total.

Fact: In nine years, Josh Smith never missed more than 13 games in one season, and he's missed only 46 games total for his career. He's durable as hell.

Fact: If you made a "Best Forwards in Basketball" list right now, LeBron and Durant would go first and second, obviously, followed by Carmelo Anthony, Paul George and Dirk Nowitzki. If Kevin Love is healthy, I'd have him sixth, followed by Blake Griffin seventh.8 (http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/9522281/the-nba-midnight-run-part-2#footnote8) You know who's eighth if you threw out salaries and just based this list on "What am I getting every night on both ends RIGHT NOW if I need a quality forward to play 36 minutes a night for me as my best or second-best player on a playoff team"? That's right, Josh Smith. You'd take him over Serge Ibaka, Anthony Davis and everyone else except mayyyyyyyybe David West.

So Detroit paid less than max money for, right now, the eighth-best forward in basketball. That's a bad idea??? Now they can build around Andre Drummond, Smith, Greg Monroe, Brandon Jennings (more on him in a second) and $17 million in expirings (Charlie Villanueva and Rodney Stuckey) that could absolutely be flipped for one more asset. What's wrong with that? Especially if Drummond (a potential stud who blossomed this summer into a 290-pound, 6-percent-body-fat Dwight Howard look-alike) continues to improve?

As for how we match up within our division.... other than the Bulls and the Pacers I'd imagine we dominate :-)